The Heart Nebula, IC 1805, Sh2-190, lies some 7500 light years away from Earth and is located in the Perseus Arm of the Galaxy in the constellation Cassiopeia. This is an emission nebula showing glowing gas and darker dust lanes. The nebula is formed by plasma of ionizedhydrogen and free electrons.

The very brightest part of this nebula (the knot at the right) is separately classified as NGC 896, because it was the first part of this nebula to be discovered.

The nebula’s intense red output and its configuration are driven by the radiation emanating from a small group of stars near the nebula’s center. Thisopen cluster of stars known as Melotte 15 contains a few bright stars nearly 50 times the mass of our Sun, and many more dim stars that are only a fraction of our Sun’s mass. The cluster used to contain a microquasar that was expelled millions of years ago.

Imaging telescopes or lenses: TecnoSky Apo 70/420
Imaging cameras: Atik 314L+ Mono
Mounts: Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro
Guiding telescopes or lenses: TecnoSky Telescopio Guida 50/168
Guiding cameras: QHY5-II QHY-5 color
Software: Adobe Photoshop CS5 Photoshop CS5, Deep Sky Stacker 3.3.3 Beta 47
Resolution: 1329×954
Dates: Dec. 21, 2013
Frames:
Baader H-alpha 7nm : 8×900″ -10C bin 1×1
Baader OIII 1.25″ Filter: 8×900″ -10C bin 1×1
Integration: 4.0 hours
Darks: ~10
Bias: ~9

Autor: Domenico De Luca

28 December 2013

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